


Knighthood, Sainthood

by FaintlyMacabre



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [5]
Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Blood, Blood and Injury, Blood and Violence, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Growing up in Oldtown, Junoverse | Juno Steel Universe, Mostly Mick & Juno, shortness of breath
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-17
Updated: 2020-04-17
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:00:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23701960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FaintlyMacabre/pseuds/FaintlyMacabre
Summary: Sasha and Benten specialized in precision maneuvers, Mick was the one who didn’t know how to recognize trouble until he was up to his eyeballs in it, and Juno— for some reason— was the extraction team. He’d run into hell to save any of them but somehow, Mick was the only one who ever needed it.
Relationships: Benzaiten Steel & Juno Steel, Juno Steel & Sasha Wire, Mick Mercury & Juno Steel
Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1702642
Comments: 1
Kudos: 40
Collections: Bad Things Happen Bingo





	Knighthood, Sainthood

**Author's Note:**

> ivekilledmonsters on Tumblr requested Bloody Nose and Juno. Thank you so much for the prompt!

“Juno, run!” He glared as much as he was able with all his focus on getting his body to keep moving and his burning lungs to breathe. Benten had only just passed him, but you didn’t see Juno yelling back at _him_ to run before, because _they were both already running_. It didn’t matter. Soon they’d be over the fence and out of sight.

“Juno!”

“Jesus, Sasha, you can’t just jump out at a guy like that!” Juno jumped, but made himself keep on toward the fence. He was going to make it, just a few more feet.

“Where’s Mick?” she said from the other side.

“What do you—?” he panted and finally slowed. “He’s not with you?”

“He was with _you_ ,” she said. “I grabbed our stuff and got out of there as soon as I could, remember?”

Yeah, yeah, he did remember now. Sasha had snuck out first as usual so the rest of them would be unencumbered when things went completely south. And as usual, Mick thought he would use his “smooth talkin’” to get them out of trouble rather than just running from it like his more sensible friends.

Benten was looking at him now like he knew what he was about to do, from most of the way up the fence. And Juno knew that look, the “do you need backup” look but _as usual_ , he shook his head. Why should he change the way he did things? They all had such a neat system going.

“Goddamn it,” he sighed and turned on his heel to run back the other way. “Run” was maybe generous. He’d had enough in him to go those last few feet and scale the fence, maybe enough to get down the other side. Definitely enough to drop off it and drag himself out of sight, at least. But this is how it worked. Sasha and Benten specialized in precision maneuvers, Mick was the one who didn’t know how to recognize trouble until he was up to his eyeballs in it, and Juno— for _some_ reason— was the extraction team. He’d run into hell to save any of them but somehow, Mick was the only one who ever needed it. These weren’t officially assigned roles, just where they seemed to gravitate.

_One of these days_ , he thought as he forced his feet to keep hitting payment, _Mick’s gonna get into something I can’t pull him out of._ But this didn’t feel like a streak-breaking day, so he dragged himself back to the alley he’d just escaped through the pain in his chest and the spots in his vision.

“Hey!” he tried to shout, forcing himself to stand upright rather than lean on the wall the way his whole body was screaming at him to do. “Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?”

For a second, Mick’s assailants just looked puzzled— they were pretty close to Mick’s 6’4”, and Mick had at least a head on Juno. In the stillness of the moment, Juno felt something drip down from his nose, tasted the metallic tang of his own blood. Well, hopefully it made him look violent and unhinged rather than “about to collapse,” which he definitely was.

One of them took a step towards him while the other two stayed on Mick. “You were one of the kids with him, right?” Another step. Juno held his ground. “It was stupid to come back here, kid. Stupid to steal from us in the first place. But look, I feel bad.” Another step. “You look like you’re about to keel over, kid, so I tell you what: how about a head start? No reason for us to beat you to a pulp when you’re most of the way there already. Be a good girl and run on home.”

And that did it. There had never been any backing down from this, but for this asshole to tell him he was just a kid and couldn’t stand up for his friend? And try to intimidate him? Fuck that.

So he charged him. Just lowered his shoulder and ran the last few steps into the guy. He heard an “Oof!” and the guy stumbled back a few steps. Juno straightened up, trying to ignore how much the world was spinning around him, and started swinging. Sometimes he even connected.

And then something connected with his ribs, hard enough to knock him off balance, and next thing he knew he was on the ground. One of the bastards kicked at him while he was too stunned to move, but joke’s on them, they only got a leg. Juno pushed off the ground and, after a few false starts, got to his feet. He looked around but the only other person in the alley was Mick, who was staring at him as he pulled himself up by the wall.

“Holy crap, Jay, are you all right?” Mick was squinting, or maybe he just couldn’t open his eyes all the way.

“I don’t know, how do I look?”

“I’ll be honest, buddy, not good.”

“Lady saves your life, and you’re gonna insult him like that?” Juno turned toward the mouth of the alley. “Where’d they go?”

“They left.”

“Yeah, obviously—”

“I don’t know, Jay, what does it matter?” Mick limped over to him, leaning on the wall. “What do you think you’re gonna do to them? And why’d you come back?”

“Seriously, Mercury?” Juno turned back to Mick, too fast, way too fast, and he had to take a second to get his balance back. “I came back for _you_.”

“Yeah, but you were already beat to hell when you got here, and then you got beat to— I don’t know, worse hell!”

“What was I going to do, leave you here?”

“Jay, buddy, it’s not like we took enough for them to kill me. And look at me, they still smacked me around.” Yeah, it wasn’t like Juno could deny it: Mick hadn’t had that limp before he went into that alley, his shirt had more rips in it than connecting fabric, and that was one nasty shiner starting around his left eye. “Man, I know you mean well, but it’s no good for both of us to get messed up this bad. I think they might have broken your nose.” Mick reached towards him, but Juno stumbled back.

“It was bleeding when I got here,” he said. He touched a finger to his septum and felt warm, wet blood flowing over dried blood. “Ugh.”

“Look, I don’t want to argue with you, Juno, but how are we even going to get home like this?”

“Same way I do everything, Mick: pure, stupid stubbornness,” Juno said.

“I mean, I wasn’t going to say it,” Mick said. Juno automatically swung a fist at his arm, but he missed and stumbled instead. “Jay, sit down.”

“I’m not going to stay in an alley where we just got our asses handed to us!”

“Yeah? Take five steps.”

Juno made it three before his legs gave out. “Well, this is no good.”

“Glad you’re seeing it my way, for once.” Mick slid down the wall next to him and reached into a pocket. “Here.” He handed Juno a mostly flattened candy bar.

“What’s this for?”

“When’s the last time you ate something?” Mick said.

“Jeez, I don’t know!”

“That’s what it’s for.” Juno hesitated, but finally took the candy and started eating. “You can’t do everything for everyone, Juno. You shouldn’t even try.”

“You sound like Ben and Sasha,” Juno said around a mouthful of candy.

“Yeah, well, they’re really smart, so they’re probably right.” Mick sighed and shook his head. “Let’s wait a little and then see if we can head home. It’ll take us a while, but—” His face suddenly brightened. “My hoverbike! I parked it a block away! I hope it’s still there.”

“No one’s stealing your stupid hoverbike,” Juno mumbled, no venom in it. He finished the candy bar and Mick stood up, testing his weight on both legs. Juno pulled himself up the wall, but his own legs were still a little shaky. If he just locked his knees, maybe…

“Come here.” Mick was holding out a hand.

“What?”

“Come on, you can lean on me.”

Juno looked from Mick’s hand to his face, skeptical, but Mick just raised his eyebrows and kept his hand out. Slowly, carefully, Juno slid an arm around Mick’s back, and Mick’s arm went around his shoulders.

“You good?” Mick said.

Juno glanced down at himself, touched a finger to his nose again. More dry than wet blood this time. “I’ve been worse.”

“Yeah, you have,” Mick said. Juno rolled his eyes, and tightened his arm around Mick, and together, they left the alley.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! If you'd like to make a request, I'm @princegabriel on Tumblr :)


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